Tuka and the Elves were incredulous beyond words. They'd thought their lives had come to an end. That they would be taken from this world in hell fire. The unstoppable, ancient and dreaded flame dragon had inexplicably woken long before it should have.

By some cruel twist of fate, it stumbled upon their village and attacked, killing nearly all their warriors as they put up futile resistance. Then, seemingly answering their pleas for help, three large metal things came crashing through the trees and into the battle.

Casting strange spells upon the beast, the metal constructs shot beams of magical light, drawing the ire of the monster onto themselves. As the flame dragon was about to burn those who had dared to interrupt its hunt, two giant metal golems came out of one of the things and flew up to challenge the dragon upon wings of fire.

Two more, smaller armored figures exited the construct shortly after, using blocky staffs to shoot beams so powerful, it hurt one's eyes to see. The warriors forced the flame dragon back and in one last attack, launched a fireball which wounded the horrible beast in the head, forcing it to flee.

Once the battle was over the golems landed and out from the constructs to the shock of Tuka and the rest of the remaining Elves, could be seen humans, cat people, demihumans and dwarves. All of them wore clothes and armor none of the Elves had ever seen. Their symbols too, were not like any of those used by countries known to the Elves.

One of the humans stepped forward and was clearly female, which shocked the Elves. The human kingdoms and empires they knew would never allow women to be soldiers. She spoke to them in a slightly confused voice.

???: Uhm, hey there, who are you all? We saw the big flying dragon and went to where it was going.

The Elves looked at each other, considering how to respond to the human's strange question. Elves and humans on Falmart weren't currently on good terms with the Empire's blatant and open disdain for non-humans, as such, even though these soldiers had saved them, they hesitated to come out of their cover.

Eventually, Tuka's father decided to greet those who had saved his family and people. Refusing to do so would dishonor their traditions and bring shame to the tribe. He also suspected that these humans were not like those of the Empire considering that they fought alongside demihumans. Using a tone that was both respectful and reserved he spoke.

Hodor Marceau: Hello valiant heroes, we are the Forest Elves, and we give you our most sincere gratitude in coming to our aid in banishing the flame dragon.

Imperial POV

Minerva was curious of who it was that her detachment had saved and so the "Elve's" answer interested her, although she hadn't expected they would be called heroes.

Minerva Antioch: Your gratitude is appreciated, but you don't have to be so formal, we were just doing our job and politeness was never a strong point on Cthonia.

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Minerva's answer interested Hodor as well, the humans he had come to know would have extorted their gratitude for saving them, but these people were humbler than any warriors he had ever met.

Hodor Marceau: I have never heard of such a place, where exactly is this "Cthonia".

Minerva struggled to find a way to answer this question before deciding to leave it for later, trying to explain the Imperium to these tribespeople was going to be a difficult challenge.

Minerva Antioch: That's a complicated subject, we'll explain it later, for now, do you guys need help with your wounded?

This stunned Hodor for a moment before he realized that in his amazement of having actually survived an encounter with the flame dragon, he had forgotten about the village.

Hodor Marceau: Oh, y-yes that would indeed be most appreciated.

Nodding to the Elve's reply, Minerva signaled with her hand for her force to help to the surviving Elves. The felenids rushed to give medical attention to the wounded, acting as both the recon detachment's scouts and medics due to their survival skills and quick wit. They primarily had to treat burns and the Elves were surprised by the extensive and unfamiliar healing supplies used by the cat people.

The remembrancer began to make sketches of the Elves and the destroyed village. The Cthonians helped put out the left-over fires with their entrenching tools while the rest of the abhumans and Space Marines used their strength to remove the wreckage of broken homes. The Elves were shocked when the Night Lords removed their helmets and revealed themselves to be humans.

Author's note: The Night Lords are still feared terror troops like in the original lore, but in Imperium Ascendent they understand that there is a line between justice and cruelty.

Tuka, letting her curiosity take over, timidly approached one of the giants and asked.

Tuka: E-Excuse me sir, but what exactly are you?

Smiling as friendly as he could, the Night Lord responded.

Night Lord: Hello miss, to answer your question, I am a Space Marine, an immortal warrior granted power making my kind the mightiest warriors in the universe, save for our Emperor's Custodians.

Tuka: Mightiest warriors? How powerful are you "Space Marines"?

Tuka asked innocently. Smiling a little more, the Astartes answered.

Night Lord: Powerful enough to make the stars themselves kneel and the Gods know fear.

At the time, Tuka thought the Marine was simply making a metaphor, she would learn a little later that the giant had only spoken the absolute truth. As Tuka and the Night Lord conversed, Minerva and Sergeant Felix discussed between themselves.

Minerva Antioch: Sergeant, do we have any intel on these Elves?

Sergeant Juno Felix: Not much other than what they look like and that they can apparently live forever, the prisoners also said that some of them can use "magic", probably what these locals call psychic powers.

Minerva Antioch: We'll have to learn more about them another time, right now these Elves just lost their homes, and most were only lucky enough to escape with just their lives.

Sergeant Juno Antioch: Then what are we going to do with them ma'am?

Pondering over her next course of action Minerva tried to think of a solution, if they just left the Elves without food or shelter then it wasn't likely for them to last much longer, and that dragon was still out there. Then she asked herself what her brother would have done, he would never allow the vulnerable to be left behind even if it killed him.

Still, there were at least a hundred Elves, most women and children, with only just over twenty soldiers in her force. Deciding on her course of action she ordered.

Minerva Antioch: Have the Testudo and Dracosan with the abhumans and Solar Auxilia escort the survivors back to base. The Chimera and us along with the Night Lords will continue to our original objective, we've got to warn the locals there of the dragon. Tell the other two transports to rendezvous with us there.

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